USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 111
USA > New Jersey > Union County > History of Union and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey with Biographical Sketches of many of their Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 111
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" It was agreed that every city, township, and district should have a meeting by themselves, and choose Committees of Observation and lu- spection, and, when choseo, meet at New Brunswick the 16th day of this instant, and by a majority of votes choose a Committee of Correspond- ence for the county, to have existence for a limited time.
" Accordingly, the several districts in the county have had meetings, and have chosen Comoritteee of Observation as follows, to wit:
"' For Woodbridge-Ebenezer Foster, Henry Freeman (1), Nathaniel Heard (2), Reuben Potter, William Smith, Jeremiah Manoing (3), Mat- thias Baker (4), Charles Jackson (5), Samuel Force (6), John Pain (7), James Manning (8), John Ileard, Daniel Moores (9), Jolin Ross (10), Ellis Barron, William Cotter (11), Reuben Evans, James Randolph, Timothy Bloomfield (12), John Noe (13), and John Conway (14).
" For Piscataway-John Gilman (15), Henry Sutton (16), John Lang- staff (17), William Manning (18), Benjamio Maoning (19), Jacob Martin (20), Charles Suydam (21), Jeremiah Field (22), Daniel Rray (23), Jacob Titsworth, Micajah Dunu (24), Melaocthon Freeman (25), and John Dunn (26).
""For South Amboy-Stephen Pangburu, John Layd, Luke Schenck, Matthew Rue, William Vance, nud Joseph Potter.
"* For New Brunswick-Azariah Dunham (27), J. Schureman (28), John Dennie (29), John Lyle, Jr. (30), Abraham Schuyler (31), George Hance (32), Jacobus Van Huys (33), John Slight, John Voorhees (34), Bareut Stryker (35), William Williamson (36), Peter Farmer, Ferdinand Schuremnn (37), Abraham Buckelew (38), and Jonathan Roeff.
"' For South Brunswick-David Williamson, Willinm Scudder (39), Isaac Van Dyck (40), John Wetherill, Jr. (41), Abraham Terhune, Jacob Van Dyck (42), and Charles Barclay.
"" For Windsor-James Hebron, Samuel Minor, Jonathan Combs,
453
MIDDLESEX COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.
Andrew Davison, Isaac Rogers, Ezekiel Smith, and Jonathso Bald- win (43).'" 1
By a meeting of the General Committee of Obser- vation and Inspection for the county of Middlesex, in the province of New Jersey, chosen in pursuance of the eleventh article of the Association of the late Continental Congress,2 and assembled at New Bruns- wick, in the said county, on Monday, the 16th day of
1 Forty-three of the sixty-nine delegates had their housee plundered or burned by the British in 1776 and 1777. The figures refer to meni- orandum of damages done to their owners by the British when they occupied New Brunswick and vicinity in 1776 and 1777, viz .:
£
S. d.
1. Cattle and horses stolen and houses plundered. 148 10 6
2. Two dwelling-houses, bolting-house, hatter's shop, weaver's shop, wagon-house, chair-house, two barns and que stable burned, and cattle, horses, and crops carried off 2189 17 6
3. Store-house chair-house, stable, and barn burned, or- chard and wonds cut down, cattle, store goode, and crops carried off and house plundered ..
636 9 0
4. Large stores of brandy, rum spirits, and merchandise, also cattle and horses carried off
478 9 10
5. Cattle, horses, and honsehold goods carried off.
6. House plundered, farm devastated, horses carried off ...
98 17 11
7. Ilorxes, sheep, and household goods carried away.
57
5
0
8. Cattle and crops carried off and farm plundered. 63 16
9. Farm devastated, cattle and horses stolen, honse plun- dered.
165 16 7
10. House plundered and cattle stolen ..
39
13
3
11. Cattle stolen and house and farm plundered ..
183 16 6
12. House burned, cattle and horses stolen, house and farm plundered
323 17
9
13. House and farm plundered, cattle, horses, and negroes stolen
406 6
3
14. House burned, do. farm and stable, house and farm plundered
186
1
3
129 5
9
16. Barn burned, house sacked and plundered, farm de- vastated
223
16 3
17. Honse plundered and trees destroyed.
19
1.5
0
19
20.
147 15 6
21. Money and valuables otolen, house and farm plundered, houses damaged, barn, etc., burned, farm devas- tated
2033 5 8
22. Cattle stolen, fence devastated, etc. 152
16 0
340 23. Ilorse stolen and honse plundered. 12
6
24. Horses, etc .. 31
0
25. Honse plundered.
38
1
0
26. House and farm plundered.
313 5
5
27. House plundered and occupied 218 11
28. Store-honses burned, negro and horses stolen, and mer- chandise carried off.
378 0
5
39. Valuable merchandise, wines, etc., carried off, house Backed and plundered, sluops carried off. 1597
15
181 13
31. Honse plundered ...
34
18
6
32. House daniaged and goods plundered 181 19
33. House damaged and plundered, farm devastated, negro stolen. 500 9
0 -
34. Shoe-shop plundered, other store goods robbed, honse plundered
183
16 0
33
2
0
36. Negroes and horses stolen and farm devastated. 825
7
3
37. Sundries plundered. 23
5 0
38.
39. Grist and fulling-mills burned and sundries plun- dered.
1188 6 D
40. Sundries plundered
9
10
0
41.
11
8
9
42. Ilorse and cattle stolen and house plundered
131
12
0
43. llonse plundered and merchandise do ....
Total ravages by British of these patriote, as far as I
630 15 0 have ascertained .£15,230
January, 1775, Azariah Dunham, Esquire, in the chair.
" 1. Resolved, That this committee have been duly empowered and authorized by the freeholders and freemen of the county of Middlesex to meet this day at New Brunswick, and in their names to transact all ench public bneiness as the committee, or a majority of them, think of importance to the general interest of the county.
"2. Resolved, That we heartily and entirely approve of the proceed- ings of the late Continental Congress, as published in their journal, en- titled " Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress held at Philadelphia, September fifth, 1774 ;' and that we esteem ourselves bound by the ties of virtue, honor, and the love of our country to contribute all in our power towards carrying into practice the measures which they have recommended.
"3. Resolved, That we look upon ourselves as under particular obliga- tions of gratitude to the worthy and public-spirited gentlemen who con- posed the late Congress for the knowledge with which they have pointed out and defined our rights, the firmness with which they have asserted them, and the wisdom with which they have devised the most likely and peaceable means of recovering, establishing, and perpetusting them.
" 4. Resolved, That James Neilson, William Oake, Azariah Dunham, John Wetherill, Jonathan, Combs, Stephen Pangburn, and Ebenezer Foster, Esquires, Messrs. William Smith, Matthias Baker, Jacob Tits- worth, John DuDD, David Williamson, Jonathan Baldwin, and Jacob Schenck be and they are by this committee appointed a Committee of Correspondence for the county of Middlesex, and that they do, as soon as possible, by their humble petition, address the General Assembly, now sitting at Perth Amboy, to nominate depnties from this Province3 to the General Congress to be held at Philadelphia in May next ; and pro- vided the Assembly do not undertake such nomination, that they then meet and join with the other Committees of Correspondence appointed by the several connties in the Province, at a proper time and place, and elect deputies for the service aforesaid; and that this committee be and continue the Committee of Correspondence for the county of Middlesex till the rising of the next General Congress, and no longer.
"5. Resolved, That we think it our duty publicly to declare our con- tempt and detestation of those insidious scribblers who, with the vilest views, enlist themselves in the cause of the Ministry, and by the vilest means endeavor to effect a dieunion among the good people of the colo- nies, that they may become a prey to the oppression against which they are so laudably and unanimously struggling; who skulk behind prosti- tuted printing-presses, and with the assistance of the prostituted conduc- tors of them, labor to circulate their pestilent compositions through the land, under the show of friendship and a regard to the public good ; who with the most unexampled effrontery against the sense of every man of the least information and impartiality, will persist in retailing the rot- ten, exploded, and ten thousand times confnted doctrines of a passive acquiescence in the measures of government, however distempered and tyrannical.
"6. Resolved, That we will preserve on this trying occasion a resolute spirit, directed by loyalty to our King, prudence, temper, and dispassion, testifying that as our cause is clearly just, we mean to support it by just exertions, and not by misrule and outrage.
"Signed by order and on behalf of the meeting by
"JOHN DENNIS, Clerk." +
One of the acts of the Provincial Convention formed of the county committees, which as we have seen met at New Brunswick on the 21st, 22d, and 23d of July, 1774, was the appointment of a "General Committee of Correspondence" for the whole colony, with authority to call a Provincinal Congress when, in its judgment, it should become necessary. A meeting of this General Committee was held at New Brunswick on Tuesday, May 2, 1775, summoned, as its proceedings show, on the receipt of the news of the
" The following is the article: " That a committee be choseo in every county, city, and town by those who are qualified to vote for repre- sentatives in the Legislature, whose business it shall be attentively to observe the conduct of all persons tonching this Association ; and when it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of a majority of any such committee that any person within the limits of their appointment has violated this Association, that such majority do forthwith cause the truth of the case to be published in the Gazette, to the end that all such foes to the rights of British America may be publickly kuown, and uni- versally contemned as the enemies of American Liberty, and thence- forth we respectively will break off all dealings with him or her."- Adopted by the Continental Congress, Oct. 20, 1774.
3 This was done, and on the 24th of January, 1775, the Assembly reap- pointed James Kinsey, Stephen Crane, William Livingston, Jolin De Hart, and Richard Smith delegates to the Continental Congress.
4 Am. Arch., i. 1083, 1084, and 1085.
18. Honse and farm plundered 4€
116
4
3
38 13
0
8
30. Negro stolen and house plundered.
064 4
35. House plundered ..
39 10 6
15. Farm and house plundered
59 15 9
6
454
HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.
battle of Lexington, which occurred April 19, 1775, and tidings of which were received at New Bruns wick by the Middlesex Committee of Correspond- ence on the 24th of April.1
"The following is the minute of the proceedings and determinations of the General Committee :
" At a meeting of the New Jersey Provincial Committee of Corre- spondence (appointed by the Provincial Congress) at the City of New Brunswick on Tuesday. the second day of May, Anno Domini 1775, agreeable to summons of Hendrick Fisher, Esq., Chairman.
" Present, Hendrick Fisher, Sammel Tucker, Joseph Borden, Joseph Riggs, Isaac Pearson, John Chetwood, Lewis Ogden, I-sac Ogden, Abra- ham Hunt, Hod Eliss Boudinot, Esquires.
" The committee having seriously taken into consideration as well the present alaroring and very extraordinary conduct of the British Ministry for carrying into execution sundry Acts of Parliament for the express purpose of raising a revenue in America, and other unconstitutional measures therein mentioned; as also the several acts of hostility that have been actually commenced for this purpose by the regular forces under Gen. Gage against our brethren of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, io New England, and not knowing how soon this Province may be in a etate of confusion and disorder if there are not some effectual measures speedily taken to prevent the same. This committee are unanimously of opinion, and do hereby advise and direct that the chairman do imme- diately call a Provincial Congress to meet at Trenton on Tuesday, the twenty-third of this instant. in order to consider of and determine such matters as may then and there come before them; and the several counties are hereby desired to nominate and appoint their respective deputies for the same, as speedily as may be, with full and ample powers for such purposes ae may be thought necessary for the peculiar exigen- cies of this Province.
" The committee do also direct their Chairman to forward true copies of the above mimite to the several County Committees of this Province without delay.
" HENDRICK FISHER, Chairman." 2
In response to this call the second convention of the province, under the title of "The Provincial Congress of New Jersey," mnet at Trenton at the time appointed, May 23d, and continued in session until the afternoon of June 3d, 1775, with eighty-seven delegates in attendance, who, as we learn from a message which they sent to the Continental Congress on Thursday, May 25th, hy William P. Smith and Elias Boudinot, were "appointed by the several counties of this province as their deputies to meet in Provincial Congress."
1 The original dispatch giving the news of the battle of Lexington was forwarded by the committee of Watertown, Mass., at ten o'clock A M. of Wednesday, April 19th, and was carried hy express-riders to the committees at Worcester, Brookline, Norwich, New London, Lynn, Say- brook, Killingsworth, East Guilford, Guilford, Branford, New Haven, and Fairfield, and reached the chamber of the New York committee at four o'clock on Sunday afternoon, on the 23d of April. The dispatch was then forwarded with the following indorsement by the New York com- mittee : " Rec'd the within Account by express and forwarded by express to New Brunswick with Directions to stop at Elizabeth Town and acquaint the committee there with the following Particulars. By order of the committee, lsaac Low, Chairman. The committee at N. Brunswick are requested to forward this to Phila." The other endorsements made upon the despatch during its progrese through New Jersey were as follows : " New Brunswick, Ap. 24, 1775, 2 o'clock in the morning rec'd the above express and forwarded to Princeton. Wm. Oske, Jas. Neilson, Az. Dun- ham, Com'e." ... " Princeton, Monday, Apl. 24, 6 o'clock, and forw'd to Trenton. Tho. Wiggins, Jon. Baldwin, Com. Members." . .. "Tren- ton, Monday, Apl. 24, 9 o'clock in the morning rec'd the above per ex- press aod forwarded the same to the Committee of Philadelphia. Sam. Tucker, Isaac Smith, Com'e."
2 Am. Archives, li. 467-68.
The Congress occupied the first day of its session in examining and comparing the certificates of elec- tion of the members present, and on the following day, May 24th, organized by electing Hendrick Fisher, of Somerset, president; Jonathan D. Ser- geant, of Somerset, secretary ; and William Paterson and Frederick Frelinghuysen, of Somerset, assistant secretaries. On the 25th, Samuel Tucker, of Hunter- don, was elected vice-president. The delegates in at- tendance from the thirteen counties. composing the province (the number of counties, it will be observed, was the same as that of the "old thirteen" States) were as follows : 3
Bergen : John Fell, John Demarest,*b Hendrick Kuyper, Abraham Van Boskirk, Edo Merselius,-8.
Essex : Henry Garritse,* Michael Vreeland, Robert Drummond, John Berry, William P. Smith, John Stites, John Chetwood, Abraham Clark,*| Elias Boudinot, Isaac Ogden, Philip Van Cortlandt, Beth- uel Pierson, Caleb Camp,-13.
Middlesex : Nathaniel Heard,a William Smith, John Dunn,c John Lloyd, Azariah Dunham,*d John Schureman, John Wetherill,*d David Williamson, Jonathan Sergeant, Jonathan Baldwin, Jonathan Deare,e-11.
Morris : William Winds,*d William DeHart, Jon- athan Stiles, Peter Dickerson, Jacob Drake, Ellis Cook, Silas Condit,-7.
Somerset : Hendrick Fisher,* John Roy,* Peter Schenck, Abraham Van Neste, Jonathan D. Sergeant, Frederick Frelinghuysen,d William Paterson, -- 8.
Sussex : Archibald Stewart, Edward Dumont, William Maxwell,f Ephraim Martin,-4.
Monmouth : Edward Taylor, *¿ Joseph Saltar,¿ Robert Montgomery, John Holmes, John Coven- hoven, Daniel Hendrickson,¿ Nicholas Van Brunt, -7.
Hunterdon : Samuel Tucker, *¿ John Mehelm,* John Hart,| John Stout, Jasper Smith, Thomas Lowry, Charles Stewart, Daniel Hunt, Ralph Hart, Jacob Jennings, Richard Stevens, John Stevens, Jr., Thomas Stout, Thomas Jones, John Basset,-15.
Burlington : Joseph Borden, Isaac Pearson, Colin Campbell,¿ Joseph Reed, John Pope,-5.
Gloucester : John Cooper, Elijah Clark, John Sparks,-3.
Cumberland : Samuel Fithian, Jonathan Elmer, Thomas Ewing,-3.
Salem : Andrew Sinnickson, Robert Johnson, Samuel Dick, Jacob Scoggin, James James,-5.
Cape May : Jesse Hand,-1.
One of the first acts of this body, which exhibits
3 (a) Afterward General; (b) Captain ; (c) Major: (d) Colonel ; (s) Lieutenaot-Colonel ; (f) afterwards General.
The deputies marked (*) were also members of the Colonial House of Assembly for 1775.
The deputies marked (|) were afterwards signers of the declaration of independence.
¿ Afterwards adhered to the British, or hecame disaffected. See Jour- nal of Council of Safety, pp. 16, 20, 29, 37.
455
MIDDLESEX COUNTY IN THE REVOLUTION.
the grave deliberation and dignified sobriety with which our ancestors entered upon their perilous but patriotic course, and which also illustrates the active ; eral views of the Continental Congress.
religious principle that was conjoined with their de- votion to liberty, was the adoption of a minute re- citing that as the business which would engage their deliberations was of the highest moment, and " may, in the event, affect the lives and properties, the re- ligion and liberties of their constituents, and their remotest posterity, therefore it unquestionably be- comes the representative body of a Christian com- munity to look up to that All-powerful Being by whose providence all human events are guided, humbly imploring His divine favor, in presiding over and di- recting their present councils towards the re-estab- lishment of order and harmony between Great Britain and her distressed colonies; and that He would be graciously pleased to succeed the measures that may be devised as most conducive to these desirable ends."
In accordance with this minute, it was ordered that the president wait upon the ministers of the gospel in Trenton, and in behalf of the Congress re- quest their "alternate attendance and service every morning at eight o'clock during the session, in order that the business of the day may be opened with prayer for the above purposes."
The Congress then took into consideration the conflict which they foresaw to be impending between Great Britain and "these colonies," and decided that the crisis was of such a character as to make its assembling absolutely necessary for the security of the province, at the same time declaring its allegiance to the "rightful authority and government of His Sacred Majesty George the Third." But notwith- standing the seeming loyalty of this declaration, the Congress promptly assumed and unhesitatingly exer- cised the functions of an independent and supreme governing and legislative body regardless of the authority of the royal Governor, William Franklin, and unrestrained by the check of any other power than the will of the people. The following outline of the business transacted by the Congress will show the scope of the powers which it assumed and exercised with a firm hand.
The action of the General Assembly which met at Perth Amboy the previous January in electing five deputies to represent the province in the Continental Congress was approved.
It was ordered that each county should have one vote.
therewith may be adopted, and that none should be determined upon that would mar or obstruct the gen-
Having given this prompt and assuring evidence of their voluntary subordination to the General Congress, and of their disposition to co-operate with it in se- curing the general welfare, the Provincial Congress of New Jersey unanimously adopted a resolution recommending the people of New Jersey to adhere to a resolution just passed by the Continental Congress, prescribing that "all exportations to Quebec, Nova Scotia, St. John's, Newfoundland, Georgia (except the parish of St. John's), and East and West Florida" should immediately cease, and that no provisions or other necessaries should be furnished to British fisher- men on the American coasts.
A committee for opening a correspondence with the recently organized Provincial Congress of New York was appointed, and a draft of a letter to that body was adopted, informing it of the organization of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, suggesting a uni- form plan of action, and offering and inviting in re- turn a "free communication" from time to time of such measures and intelligence " as may be judged most conducive to the interest of the common cause," which letter, a few days later, was cordially responded to.
Articles of association were adopted and ordered to be sent to the Committee of Observation and Corre- spondence in all the counties, with instructions that they should procure them to be signed by the free- holders and inhabitants of the several townships, re- citing the design of the British ministry to raise a revenue in America ; referring in indignant terms to the cruel hostilities commenced in Massachusetts ; ex- pressing the conviction that the preservation of the rights and privileges of America depended, under God, on the firm union of its inhabitants and their abhorrence of slavery ; solemnly resolving, under the sacred ties of virtue, honor, and love of country, per- sonally and by their influence, to support and carry into execution the measures recommended by the Continental and Provincial Congresses for defending and preserving inviolate the Constitution ; and pledg- ing themselves, so far as was consistent with the measures adopted for the preservation of American freedom, to support all existing magistrates and civil officers in the execution of their duty, and to guard against the " disorders and confusions to which all citizens were exposed by the circumstances of the times."
These measures having been taken for co-operation with the Continental Congress, and for the preservation of the internal order of the province, a still more deci- ded and menacing revolutionary step was taken on the last day of the session, June 3, 1775, by the adoption of a bill for regulating the militia of the colony. The preamble of this important bill indicates that all ex-
A message was dispatched to the Continental Con- gress, in session at Philadelphia, expressing a dispo- sition most heartily to concur, to the utmost of their abilities, in the common cause of America, in confor- mity with some general plan to be recommended by the Continental Congress ; also desiring to be promptly advised of what the Continental Congress may think desirable to be done, so that measures consistent | pectation of a redress of grievances and of a re-estab-
456
HISTORY OF UNION AND MIDDLESEX COUNTIES, NEW JERSEY.
lishment of the old relations between Great Britain and the colonies was rapidly vanishing, or, perhaps, that it had already vanished ; and its expression of a hope for " the restoration of the old relations" seems to have been merely a politic expedient, resorted to out of deference to those of their fellow-citizens who were not yet prepared for, and might be dismayed by, the spectre of extreme measures. Referring to the " arbitrary measures adopted and pursued by the British Parliament and Ministry for the purpose of subjugating the American colonies to the most abject servitude," and expressing the apprehension "that all pacific measures for the redress of our grievances will prove ineffectual," the Congress boldly declared that it is " highly necessary that the inhabitants of this province be forthwith properly armed and disci- plined for defending the cause of American freedom," and " that such persons he intrusted with the com- mand of the militia as can be confided in by the peo- ple, and are truly zealous in support of our just rights and privileges." The Congress meant war, if war should be necessary for the maintenance of liberty, and at once set about to prepare for it. They there- fore prescribed that one or more companies of eighty men each be immediately formed in each township or corporation, to be taken from the inhabitants capable of bearing arms between the ages of sixteen and fifty, each of which companies should choose by plurality of voices four persons from among themselves of suf- ficient capacity and substance for its officers, namely, one captain, two lieutenants, and one ensign. These officers were authorized to select fit persons for ser- geants, corporals, and drummers. The remainder of the act provides for the formation of regiments and the election of regimental officers, for the mustering of the men, for their assemblage for drill, general muster, and review, and for their equipment with arms, ammunition, and camp equipage.
The next business of the Congress, logically neces- sitated by the militia bill, was the passage of an or- dinance for raising by taxation ten thousand pounds proclamation money for the use of the province, which tax was apportioned to the several counties as follows :
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